The Otter's Ransom: Moral Accompaniments to Legal Codes in the Icelandic Sagas by Creedle William

Author:Creedle, William [Creedle, William]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, azw
Published: 2015-09-19T16:00:00+00:00

Ethics of the host

All this trouble, this pot-stirring by Queen Gunnhild, this defiling of the temple, does not occur sui generis, of course. There is a long history of animosity between the family Skallagrim and the Norwegian crown spanning three generations. But what seems to have really antagonized Queen Gunnhild, and put her on the path to open murder, was the manslaughter of a man called Bard of Atloy at the hands of Egil Skallagrimsson.

The set-up for the killing of Bard-Atloy revolves around the duties and honors of hosting people in your home. The sagas speak repeatedly of the duties involved with entertaining guests, and often times the feast is the foil for plot-driving incidents[34]. Grágás speaks of travelers’ rights to seek lodging and how failure to properly take care of even uninvited guests can result in severe penalties (1117, pg. 42-43). In this case, Egil and Olvir the tax collector have arrived at the Farm of Bard in the midst of a driving rainstorm. Bard puts Egil and his men up for the night in a fire-room away from the main buildings. He feeds them, providing them everything but ale. Twice in one page he apologizes for having no ale:

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